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Hi I am attempting my first time at planting seeds indoors. I'm confused about what I do next when the seeds have sprouted their first leaves. Do I take these first leaves off or wait until the second set? I read somewhere to take the leaves off to promote stronger stems. HELP!! They are all annual flower seeds and vary in height from about an inch to 3 inches. I am using grow lights too.
Do Not pull off the initial leaves. They will eventually drop on their own.
Once you have a healthy plant with a couple of rows of real leaves, transplant them into "six pack" type containers and maintain them until it is safe to plant them out of doors.
No, don't cut leaves off of a seedling. I'm not sure what context you read the original advice, but I can't imagine why someone would recommend that.
Plants use their green leaves to make the sugars (and other things) they need to grow. If a plantlet only has four tiny leaves and you remove two of them - how fast do you think that plant is going to grow????
Thanks for the quick reply Ted Bear. The seedling have gotten so spindly. Do I have the grow light too far away from the plants? I'm afraid of burning the plants.
Thanks Jacqueg for your reply also. I think I need all the advice I can get! As I mentioned to Ted Bear I'm afraid I might burn the plants with the grow light yet the plants are so spindly!
How far away are your lights? Spindly stems mean the plant is reaching for the light. When I start seedlings under grow lights, the lights are just a few inches from the tops of plants. Here is some more info that may help:
Causes of weak spindly seedlings:
Temperatures too high--either day or night or both. During seed starting times, I try to keep the greenhouse temperatures in the 70's during the day, and in the low to mid 50's at night.
Not enough light. Seedlings will stretch toward the light. I keep seedlings under fluorescent lights about 16 hours a day. The lights are just a couple of inches above the plants.
Not enough air movement. You should have a fan running gently near the plants at all times. This helps them grow stocky and also prevents damping off fungus.
Also, brushing your plant tops gently with your fingers for a couple of minutes a day will help them grow stocky.
Seeds planted too deep or soil surface was too dry. Seeds have a limited amount of energy (in the cotyledons) to push themselves up through the soil.
Not enough food. Once you see true leaves, you should be giving the plants weak solutions of fertilizer (I use fish & kelp emulsion).
Thanks aquietpath. I guess my babies were too far from the light source. I am afraid of scorching the leaves. Would that happen? I have dropped the lights down some more. Thankyou for the pointers.
I guess my babies were too far from the light source. I am afraid of scorching the leaves. Would that happen? I have dropped the lights down some more.
Not that I have much experience in gardening, but some of my plants have had their leaves right up to the grow light (the ones I'm thinking about are the morning glories)--let me tell you, those leaves got BIG!!! So, it didn't hurt mine but I'm not sure about different kinds of grow lights; maybe there's a few different kinds. I got mine at Lowe's, it's the Ferry Morse brand (uses some kind of fluorescent light). I wish I had some time to post pictures on the difference between the normal-lighted plants (that were getting plenty of sunlight) and the one's under the grow-light. It's amazing and that's a way extreme understatement.
Thanks aquietpath. I guess my babies were too far from the light source. I am afraid of scorching the leaves. Would that happen? I have dropped the lights down some more. Thankyou for the pointers.
Incandescent lights can burn baby leaves. But fluorescent lights run cool, so no. The tubes should be maybe an inch or so above the plants. Yes, you'll need to raise the lights as the seedlings grow. It's very satisfying to do this every couple of days - look, ma, they're growing!
Also, what's your setup? You should be using as many tubes as possible. My DIY setup is a storage rack, with three dual lamp shop fixtures hanging from each shelf - 6 tubes for each shelf. That's all that will fit!
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